


In a Blink

by baeberiibungh



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: AU, Assistant Will, Escape Artist Hannibal, F/M, Happy Molly, M/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-05 07:30:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5366588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baeberiibungh/pseuds/baeberiibungh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannibal is an escape artist and Will is his assistant. Does not go the way you think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In a Blink

**Author's Note:**

> Just saw something about Houdini and I love flash cards, aren’t they the best, yes they fucking are

Hannibal Lecter was a scientist before he became so adept at being an escape artist. He started by learning a few of his tricks from Houdini and now is held to be his contemporary, or an almost equal brilliance if not more and is usually assisted by his good friend Will. Will is a small little thing and a delight to watch in his peacock costume with the feathers shimmering under the light and his face painted in shades of green. The times he dons a dress like a lass is good too, someone who does not know him may try to make a pass on him then, so pretty he looks.

Some would almost call him strange, but it is all in good fun, but he is a married man with a small son no less, so everyone took it as some quirk of his and left it to that. It was not like he went around in petticoats after all, and it was just a show and why, in Shakespeare’s time, all the actors were males and pretended to be females. So it was nothing new, Molly the wife was very understanding and came to the shows herself a few times, sitting in the chair allotted to family and she would smile so winsomely at him, so nothing to see there, just a man in jest.

Hannibal though, whether you were a man or a woman or something else entirely, he enticed them all. He was not of here, oh no, his accent gave him away very easily. He was a man who had travelled from far and had different customs, and hence his close friendship with the Graham lad. Will would become a small child around him, free and giggly at the antics that Hannibal pulled, his surprise at the turn of events as wondering as the audience’s. It is a free country and it is the new world after all, so hardly the matter for gossip.

Yet some malevolent whispers prevailed, of Will disrobed in Hannibal’s presence while Hannibal did things to him, himself fully clothed, of ropes being used to tie up limbs and will, against the want of a man, and of true magic, magic that makes everyone forget what they saw, for that was the power Hannibal had, but one didn’t really believed those. Hannibal had never missed one day at church, gives generously to it and has openly admitted to be on the lookout for a sensible wife, much like Molly in her regard Hannibal would point out in an aside, who would not think to stay her husband away from something that pleases him.

Their vanity and curiosity sated thus, the young ladies tried to make Hannibal court them, with the bargain of a delicious cooking or pristine needle work that lay or a dowry that shone substantial at throats and wrists and hung from small ears. Hannibal would take them out, all in proper distance and talk with them or visit them at their houses in the presence of their family and that would be it. ‘Too young’ he would lament, ‘too old’ he would admit, ‘too beautiful’ he would confess, ‘too plain’ he would explain, ‘not like Molly’ he would whisper, and then the people understood. 

Hannibal was not after Will, nay, he was in love with Molly, but was too much a gentleman to do anything about it. That is why he called on Will and made him his assistant, kept him happy, the simple child like man, just so that he may gaze his eyes on the visage of Molly dear, the beauty that had bewitched both the men. That it was Hannibal that called molly to each show so that his courage may grow while he drowned himself and locked himself away and came back alive and quick footed again. Alas, it was just not meant to be, and Molly herself did not seem to be aware.

Some called her a wench, for surely she had noted the eyes on her youthful body, must have seen something in the way Hannibal treats them both, but nay, she didn’t and Will was too naive, too proud, too innocent, too cunning, many said many more, to make a hue about it. Thinking it best to keep their mouth quite, they did not utter their suspicion before the married couple, and how pure and happy they did looked when they stepped away from the church after service, the little boy held aloft on his arms by Will, such a sweet picture they made. Who would be cruel to break them over speculations, when a man was just sadly drowning in love and the others unaware.

There were commiserating looks, thumps on back and offers to drinks, and more subtle offers to take Hannibal to some of the corners where a few turns could be bought for the clink of some coins. After all, what god had created, no man may dare undo, and everyone knew that Molly was devoted, as Will was and Hannibal too weak a man to not let go. He could escape from every lock created, every trap thought of, and yet, he couldn’t tug free a caught heart and will himself free again. They were sad on his account, but not too much too, he was not of them after all, not like Will, Molly and their child were, and one day Hannibal would leave for his travels again and that will be the end of it.

Hannibal stayed on for two years, still on the search for w wife, leaving every now and then to do shows in other places, in other countries, but returning each time, like a dog that had been abandoned by its owner, back to Will, and thus to Molly. It was saddening really, what with Molly and Will so happy together and their son who did not seem to grow that much honestly and then one day, the town woke up to find the house the Grahams lived in empty, their stables clean of everything and Hannibal missing. Where did they go, everyone wondered, thinking about the boy who never seemed to grow bigger or Molly who never stopped smiling or Will who laughed in delight every time his eyes fell on Hannibal, and Hannibal, who looked at Molly, didn’t he, where did his gaze end up on, who did he watch so fixedly, surely not Will, small and slim Will, in his peacock dress, surely not him, surely not them. 

Then, as if unanimously deciding, everyone forgot about them and broke the house to the smallest pieces. It did not do good to keep things marked by the other people.

**Author's Note:**

> Ugh, can't stop writing, thank god headache down. Thank you for reading. Please let me how you liked/disliked it in the comments. Kudos too! Unbetaed. Also, a side note, fairies were called the other people in some literature.


End file.
